


A Rose Watered by a River

by Arynphallia



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF River Song, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, F/M, Post-Library River Song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-08 06:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19101148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arynphallia/pseuds/Arynphallia
Summary: River did not expect to survive the Library. But here she is, in London in the year 2000 and somehow, she'll have to figure out why.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'ed  
> Be kind

River Song dies in the Library in the 51st century. 

 

She wakes up in London, just after the turn of the millennium.

 

No means of escape but she does have a new face, still partial Time Lord biology and all her memories are intact. If she didn't know better, she would say that she had regenerated and then been dropped off. It’s totally impossible but somehow, here she is, soft brown hair and blue eyes, looking more like her father than she ever has. Fat lot of good it does her in the year 2000. 

 

She goes by Melody Williams, uses the psychic paper that apparently came with this face to craft an identity for herself, and to get into the Doctor's UNIT bank account so she actually has some damn money. 

 

Early 21st century technology is terrible and nearly impossible to work with. It takes six months for her to finally find everything she needs to cobble together an alien tech detector, which barely works most days. 

 

But she uses her lack of need for sleep and the skills that came with her Archeology degree to grind her way through the Anthropology program at Oxford. Gets a flat with the requisite curtains and carpets that never failed to make the Doctor shudder, and settles down to wait. For what, she's not entirely sure but the universe seems to have a plan for her and she's content to let things play out.

 

In 2003, she offers her home as a sanctuary to a girl from down the hall. Her boyfriend is a cretin and when she hears the girl crying in the hall after a rather explosive argument the whole floor had to have heard, she pulls the girl inside, settles her on the couch and makes her a cup of tea. It's nearly impossible to get anything out of the poor creature so Melody leaves her with a blanket and a pillow and goes to bed for the first time in over a week. 

 

The girl, who's name Melody never actually got, appears to have slept on the couch but she's gone in the morning, only leaving behind a hastily scribbled  _ thank you _ signed with a small drawing of a rose on the note pad Melody keeps on her coffee table. 

 

Two months later the girl appears at her door again with a backpack and a black eye. Melody heard her inside, let's her know that she has a spare bedroom, and immediately sets about treating her black eye and the other various injuries that the girl begrudgingly admits to. Her efforts finally earn her the girl's name. “Rose Tyler.” the girl says, her single brown eye (the other one is swollen shut, but slowly making a reappearance) shining with gratitude. 

 

Melody introduces herself and tells Rose Tyler that she is welcome to stay as long as she needs.

 

There's something very familiar about Rose. Something that Melody feels like she's missing. Some greater piece in the puzzle that she can't find. She shrugs it off. Rose is wonderful and Melody has long since learned the tragedy of not living in the moment. 

 

That night, the scummy boyfriend, Jimmy Stone, empties Rose's apartment and her bank account. Melody tracks him down and gets Rose’s money back. Jimmy Stone is later arrested with a shattered arm and two black eyes. 

 

You can say many things about Melody, but she has not and will never be a pacifist like the Doctor. She also quite likes Rose Tyler and a little karma never hurt anyone. 

 

Melody and Rose are fast friends, Rose fills out the level headedness this regeneration seems to be lacking, but she also reignights Melody's enjoyment of life. She had really spent the last three years in a sorta fog, just letting time pass her by and waiting for something to happen. But maybe, maybe Rose is what was meant to happen. 

 

Rose never actually moves out. She reconciles with her mother after a month or so and visits home often, but she also pays rent to Melody and slowly moves all her stuff over. 

 

At some point, she falls in love and Melody has never been more terrified. She's not good at being in love. The majority of people she's been in love with are either dead or think she's dead. Hell, he last truly romantic encounter had been Darillium, and why that had been and blissful twenty-three years spent with the Doctor, their relationship has always been complicated at best. 

Because he knew exactly what he was doing when he left her. Knew he was sending her off to die. And he has smiled at her so gently and kissed her goodbye. Bastard.

But loving Rose is so simple, easier than breathing really. It's like she hadn't been paying attention and suddenly there she was, daydreaming about what Rose would think of this or that like her father had been with Amy when they were teenagers. 

 

Rose, Melody quickly discovers, is an amazing artist and they make up a game where Melody will describe a person or a place to her to see what Rose will create. 

 

"I don't know where you come up with this stuff." Rose laughs one night and she shows Melody a terrifyingly accurate rendition of the crashed Byzantium. 

 

Melody grins to hide the painful memories. "I'm a time traveler from the future, darling. I've seen things you wouldn't believe." She teases. 

 

Rose just laughs like she always does and calls her daft.

 

Six months in, Rose gets a raise at Henriks and Melody takes her to dinner to celebrate. They flirt their way through dinner and fall into bed together that night. Nothing really happens, much to Melody's simultaneous relief and disappointment. 

 

A year in, Rose accidentally makes telepathic contact with Melody while they're watching some cheesy movie. Melody responds without really thinking, it's been a common enough thing with several of the people she's close to but Rose nearly panics when she realizes that Melody wasn't actually speaking out loud.

 

It takes two hours and a stethoscope to calm Rose down and help her understand what actually happened. But is seems the double pulse of her hearts helps everything settle in Rose's mind and she's quick to accept it.

 

"So, you're an alien?" Rose finally asks, trying to get everything straight. 

 

"It's complicated. Both of my parents were human. Think of it more like human plus. I've got a bit of alien in me that helps me live longer."

 

"Does that mean you've actually been to other planets? That wasn't you just havin' me on?" Rose questions eagerly, eyes bright. 

 

"Yeah, I have. Different times too. Spent most of my life in the 52nd century."

 

"Will you tell me about it?" 

 

Melody hesitates, "I can't tell you everything. There are things that happen here on Earth that are technically future knowledge for you."

 

"Whatever you can. I just can't believe that my roommate has been to other planets." Rose says excitedly.

 

Melody insists that Rose learn to control her telepathic tendencies too. It's better for Rose, because if the impending alien invasions Melody knows are coming and because telepathy is downright fun and she's missed the contact.

 

She spends hours training Rose until Rose has decent barriers and the ability to consciously share her thoughts and memories, then she spends even more time showing Rose the planets she’s been to. It’s the most connected she’s ever felt with another person, including the Doctor.

 

She confesses her feeling, late one night after they’re stayed up drinking wine and watching time travel movies while Melody makes snide comments that send Rose into fits of giggles.

 

It’s a simple ‘I love you’ concealed in a kiss on Rose’s forehead, that Rose hears anyway, that sets their relationship down a much more romantic path. Movie nights become excuses to make-out on the couch, they lay in bed just passing memories and feelings back and forth every night for nearly two months and Melody always goes to bed when Rose does, even if she has no need for sleep. The simple act of watching Rose sleep is more wonderful than she can describe. 

 

They spend hours on the phone when Melody's position at the research lab she works for demands she go to another continent for however long to study long dead people who are even more dead by the time she got her original degree. 

 

Melody quickly finds that loving Rose Tyler is the best thing she’s ever done. Rose is so accepting, so kind, that she willingly puts up with Melody being unable to tell her everything about her past and that Mels will never be comfortable staying in one place for too long. Rose readily puts up with the traveling, as long as Melody comes home to her, and Melody always will.


	2. Chapter 2

Melody has been away for two months when the living plastic attacks. She answers her phone to a slightly panicked Rose trying to tell her about the mad man that blew up Henrick.

 

It's only then that Melody remembers why she knows the name Rose Tyler. She's a companion, the first after the War and, as Melody had thought of her for years, the other woman the Doctor loves.

 

She does her best to sound enthusiastic, even though now she knows that she's going to lose Rose just like everyone else. The Doctor never told her how this story ends, but she knows it's not happily, the Doctor has never been that lucky.

 

But she does what she thinks is the right thing and reminds Rose of her desire to travel.

 

And Rose, ever eager to see the wonders that Mels always tells her about, hesitates just long enough for the Doctor to leave and then return. When he holds out a hand and says, “Did I mention it travels in time?” She give Mickey a quick hug and runs inside the spaceship.

  


When the Doctor supes up her phone five billion years into the future, she immediately dials Melody's number and grins when Mels purrs ‘Hello darling’ upon answering.

  


“Mels, you're never gonna guess where I am.”

  


When she feels the first spark of attraction between her and the Doctor in a basement in Cardiff 115 or so years before shes born, she finally understands what Melody means when she talks about being able to love multiple people at the same time.

  


When she's brought home a year late, after the police leave and she's sure the Doctor isn't going to pull a runner on her, she meets Melody at home and they snuggle in bed while Rose catches her up on all the places she's been. Its surprising, how well Melody seems to be taking this, but Melody brushes her worry aside with a gentle, “You called me and said you were in the year five billion. I'm just happy you came back at all.”

 

Every adventure ends in a phone call to Melody. Most of the time it's a quick 'this is what happened, I'm still alive' and then it's off to bed or to curl up on the couch in the library with a book and hope that the Doctor will join her.

 

Rose doesnt call Melody the day she holds her father while he dies. Instead, she falls asleep with the Doctor on the couch in the Media room while watching the Muppet Movie. And for the first time since the dalek, she doesn't wake from nightmares.

 

Rose finds that falling in love with the Doctor is incredibly easy, just as easy as falling in love with Melody had been. It's like finding someone who sees everything you are and they find nothing lacking. She wonders if the Doctor sees her the same way.

 

She tells Mels this one night, frustrated and confused but she can hear the grin in Melody's voice when she responds, “Its terrifying isn't? Realizing that you love two people at the same time.” Rose tries to reassure her, to promise that the feelings she has for the Doctor don't matter but Mels cuts her off. “Rose Tyler, loving him doesn't mean you love me any less and I will never, ever, deny you the opportunity to love and be loved. Even if the 21st century disagrees and says I should be jealous.”

  


Two weeks later she's surprised again at the simmering beginnings of lust she feels for Captain Jack Harkness. She's not sure that she would actually want to sleep with him, but the flirting strokes her ego and she's happy to let it stay at that.

 

The shock must be all over her face. It's so strange to see Jack openly flirting with another man, she and Melody were harassed enough in 2005. 1941 must be like a different, intolerant planet. But it seems the Doctor misinterprets her surprise as… what she doesn't know. But she doesn't like the way his responses make her feel like she's being intolerant

 

"Doesn't take 51st century ideals to be flexible about dancing." She bites out, glaring up at him. “Doctor, it's 1941. It's literally illegal to be homosexual. I have a hard enough time at home as is. Excuse me for being shocked that Jack can be so open.”

 

His eyes meet hers and he seems almost surprised, "You're-” it's very obviously a question and she grins at him.

 

“Very open about who I dance with.” she's trying to stress it for him, clue him into exactly what she means: that she would be more than willing to dance with him, if he wanted.

 

He eyes her carefully, as if seeing her in a new light, but then they have a day to save and the conversation is filed away under things they don't talk about.

 

He finds her in the library one evening, just finishing up a call with Mels, looking surprised when she ends the call with a gentle 'I love you' and a promise to meet soon. Two days later he tells her he need to stop in Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS. He doesn't say it, but he wants to meet this mysterious girlfriend that Rose calls every day but never really talks about.

 

Rose is immediately on her phone, giving the mysterious Melody a date and time to meet them. Jack teases her, joking about how sickeningly in love they must be. Rose blushes but is quick to say that while they do love each other, they maintain what could only be loosely called a relationship by 21st century standards. Melody, apparently, travels quite a bit for her job and she has told Rose repeatedly that she would never begrudge Rose for engaging another partner. This, she adds entirely for the Doctor's benefit, hoping that he'll finally notice how stupidly in love with him she is.

  
  
  


The Doctor fixes Jack with his best 'hands off the blonde' glare and Jack backs off but the Doctor gives no other sign of having heard their conversation. He doesn't miss the thankful glance Rose sends his way and he smiles reassuringly at her. The thankful glance turns into his favorite smile, the one that makes his hearts stutter and he quickly turns back to his work, he may fall in love with her a little bit more that day, he'll never admit it. Not even to himself.

 

The woman, Melody, is nothing like what he expected. She's tall, in her late 20s, with thick light brown hair that she wears braided down her back. Rose seems to adore Melody's hair and plays with it the second the two are in close enough proximity to do so.

 

Her eyes are some of the bluest he's ever seen on a human and he nearly blushes when the woman purrs out a 'hello sweetie' upon introduction.

 

Rose tells Melody to go easy on him and he's shocked by the depth of the envy that he feels when Melody leans over and kisses Rose in front of him. Jack teases Rose and Melody is teasing him right back as Rose blushes scarlet between them. Melody tells Jack that he's welcome to join if he thinks he can handle the perfection that is Rose Tyler. This time, Jack's cheeks tinge pink and Rose laughs.

 

He finally manages to get them off the ship with a few comments about apes and their hormones. He also adds a very firm no shagging in the console room rule to the short list that he has. The four of them go to lunch, he teases Melody endlessly about her being an archaeologist and dating a time traveler, she shrugs it off as if it's nothing she hasn't already heard and teases him about his poor driving skills, (he did bring Rose home a year late and no one seems willing to let him live that down.)

 

He's surprised by Melody when Rose hugs him after finally getting Raxacoricofallapatorius right and she shows no sign of jealousy or anger, its unusual in someone from this time period.

  


The Doctor gets corralled into escorting Margaret the Slitheen to her last meal, but he is loath to separate from Rose and her intriguing girlfriend. He tries not to stare when Rose leads Melody deeper into the TARDIS.

 

The entire dinner he wonders what they're up to, and then feels like a dirty old man for wondering.

 

Then the city is shaking, the planet being pulled apart as the rift is forced open. He's forced to watch as Margret wraps Rose's neck in her claws, tells Jack to put the extrapolator at her feet when he hears the cocking of a gun behind him. He looks over his shoulder and there stands Melody, gun trained on Margret's head. "Let her go." She bites out.

 

"I could snap her pretty little neck before you fire your shot." Margaret snaps. Rose is gasping for air now and the steel in Melody's gaze hardens further and the Doctor is haunted by how familiar it looks. He knows that expression, he's made that expression.

 

"If you kill her, I won't just put a bullet in your head.” Melody nearly purrs, her voice harder than steel and as cold as ice. “I'll take my time. I'll spend hours pulling you apart. Use a little vinegar, I've heard it works extremely well on Raxacoricofallapatorians. Now let her go or I will endeavor to make the last few hours of your life as miserable as possible." The Doctor gazes at her in shock. There's a part of him that agrees with her, wants to destroy anything that would even think of trying to hurt Rose Tyler, but reels away from the darkness in her tone. It's too familiar, would be too easy to fall back into.

 

Margret tightens her grip and before Melody can pull the trigger, the console of the TARDIS opens, the ship dealing with the woman for them.

 

"Close your eyes, Rose!" He yells before they're all blinded by the flash of Margaret being returned to an egg. Rose collapses as he closes the console. Melody is on her in an instant, sliding the gun back into a hidden holster before gently checking Rose's neck for damage. His hands clench and he forces them to relax. That's usually his job and it's hard to have to sit back and wait for Melody's assessment.

 

"Doctor," Melody says, her voice deadly calm and quiet, "do you have anything for bruising? These will look terrible in the morning and I'd rather she didn't have them." She kisses Rose's forehead, then her lips before helping her stand and handing her off to the Doctor.

He agrees with her and leads Rose to the medbay with Melody trailing closely behind.

  


The Doctor fixes the bruises quickly and Melody smiles shakily, grabbing Rose's hand. "Come walk with me for a minute. I know you want to get back to your adventures but I need to go home soon."

 

They walk outside, Melody leading the way through the now cracked square. The silence between them is actually awkward for the first time since.. ever.

  


"It's time. Isn't it?" Rose askes, looking dejected. "You always made it clear you couldn't stay forever but I thought we might get more time."

 

"I'm sorry. God, I'm so sorry Rose.” she exhales harshly. “If I could stay with you forever I would. But I can't. I can't risk you like that. The changes to your person timeline could destroy everything." Melody cups Rose's face in her hands, blue eyes beseeching brown for forgiveness.

 

"At least tell me who you are." Rose begs, "I still can't figure out how you fit into all of this."

 

Melody shifts her fingers until the rest on Rose's temples and silently asks for permission. Rose immediately tugs Melody into her mind. They've been doing this for years now and the feeling of Mels in her head, wrapping her in currents of love and trust is so achingly familiar that Rose's knees nearly give out.

 

_Rose, I want to show you._

  


_Mels please, I need to understand._

  


Melody takes a deep breath and starts at the beginning, giving Rose the basic run down of her tragic backstory while avoiding any actual memories she has of the Doctor. She finishes the story with a gentle mental caress of love and Rose shudders under her. She slowly pulls out of Rose's head and smiles when Rose's eyes flutter open. Melody expects her to be mad, to scream and rage about how Melody betrayed her trust but the anger never comes.

  


“River Song.” Rose breathes and Melody kisses her, meant to be just a gentle goodbye kiss, but Rose grabs her head and holds her close, deepening the kiss until Melody's head is swimming. She pulls back to breath and presses their foreheads together, “River.” Rose tries again, “the woman that loves the Doctor.” her words take on a strange cadence as she adds, “I've seen all that you are, how could I possibly hate you?”

  


Ah. She must have seen that then. "I love you Rose Tyler. Never forget that, it's the best part.” Melody says reverently.

  


Rose's smile is nearly blinding, “I love you too, no matter what name you go by.” Rose frees one of her hands and slides off her thumb ring and slips it on to the ring finger of Melody's left hand. “There.”

  


Melody looks at the ring and smiles, “What's this about?”

  


“We don't have time to get properly married and I'm a bit jealous of all those blokes in your head.”

  


Melody throws her head back and laughs. “We're already technically married on at least six planets in this timezone alone.” she drops a gentle kiss on Rose's nose. “I have to go.” Rose nods, she understands now, it still hurts, but it's easier knowing that Melody has people who love her. "You have my number." Melody offers. "If it's ever too much, if he ever abandons you, call me. I'll be there." She presses one last kiss to Rose's forehead and pulls away. She walks away from Rose and it's the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is actually where the whole fic came from.


	3. Chapter 3

When the Doctor sends Rose back from the Game Station, Mels is the first person she calls. Within an hour, she's there, holding Rose and telling her what an idiot that man is. "He's just trying to keep you safe." She adds on a whisper into Rose's hair. 

 

"I know, but he's out there Mels. And its 200,000 years in the future but it's right now too and he could be dying." Melody says nothing, stiffens when Rose tells her she wants to look into the heart of the TARDIS. 

 

"Rose, that could kill you." 

 

"Yeah, but it could save him." and god Melody understands that feeling. But she still refuses to help, terrified that this could be what kills Rose. 

 

Rose, being Rose, enlists Mickey's help and they struggle with his little car before Melody comes and unhooks him from the console. 

 

"There's a latch." Mels says with a sigh, "I shouldn't be showing you this but I don't want to risk damaging the console." The TARDIS hums in consent and Melody puts Rose's hand on the latch before kissing her deeply. "I love you." She says when they're both breathless. "And I know you love him. And that's okay, because I love him too. And I'm not encouraging this. But go, save him." She slips out of the TARDIS as Rose lifts the panel. The doors slam behind her and the grinding sound of the engines is simultaneously the most terrible and wonderful thing she's ever heard.

 

It's not until Christmas that Rose comes home again, confused and upset with a strange man nearly comatose in Jackie's flat. Melody rushes over and explains regeneration just before the invasion begins. She slings the Doctor over her shoulder in a fireman's carry and takes him to the TARDIS the second Rose asks. Rose has her lay him on the grating and then Melody is off to help Jackie with the rest of the food. The TARDIS vanishes as she's walking away. 

 

More panic. Nearly identical to the day Rose opened the TARDIS up. The crushing fear that this is the last time she's going to see Rose alive. But Rose comes back, and Melody nearly crushed her with the force of her hug, peppering Rose's face with kisses

 

Rose is giggling and triumphant, gesturing wildly as she explains the whole thing, when a green light streaks through the sky and destroys the Sycorax ship. 

 

Melody presses one final, longing kiss on Rose's lips then whispers, "Rose, that man is head over heels in love with you. Tell him. Don't let yourself regret it. Worst thing that happens is you end up with me for the rest of your life."

 

Rose kisses her chastity and pulls away before going to the Doctor. Melody walks away, not daring to look back because if she does, she'll never be able to leave. 

 

She never sees Rose in person again and regrets not saying an actual goodbye more than she's ever regretted anything. 

 

The worst part, is that she stops being Melody. So quickly let's that go and slips back into being River again that it's how she feels again.

 

She receives two phone calls, two days apart, almost a year later when she's living in America, trying to build or steal a vortex manipulator, because River needs to run. To get away from any time zone that Rose is in. The first phone call, about Sarah Jane Smith and the deep set fear of the Doctor leaving her behind has River ready to board a plane but she has to be rational. She can't go back. Not now. But she promises Rose that if the Doctor ever leaves her, she'll be there. It seems to help quite a bit until the next phone call. 

 

Until Madame de bloody Pompadour and waiting over five hours because the Doctor has jumped through a time window leaving her and Mickey- 'wait, since when was Mickey traveling with you?' 

 

"This is his first trip." Rose sniffs. "What am I gonna do Mels?"

 

"Well, five and a half hours has always been the standard wait time for me. Trust him, Rose. He may be a bit of a moron but he always keeps his promises."

 

There's a moment of silence before Rose shakily exhales but River can hear the smile in her voice when she says, "He's back."

 

There's a quick exchange of 'I love you's, Rose hangs up and River never talks to her again.

 

Then the ghost start appearing and River's on the next plane to London. There's not much she can discover with the current technology though and she curses herself for not being more thorough. She has tea at Jackie's once a week, always asking for updates and suggesting that Jackie call Rose. 

 

But everything goes wrong and suddenly there are cybermen in the streets and daleks in the skies and all River has is a stupid automatic pistol. 

 

It's not hard to track whatever force sucked both invaders up to Canary Wharf. It's easy to break into the building. 

 

What's hard is watching the security footage when she finds no one else alive in the build. What makes her break down is watching Rose Tyler get sucked into the Void. Or at least that's what it looks like, the footage cuts off when Rose loses her grip and she's not answering her phone. 

 

River feels cold. Colder than she has in years and she recognizes the feeling for what it is: years and years of conditioning by the Silence to turn off her emotions so she can stay functional. So she can keep fighting. 

 

The cold detaches her enough that she hardly realizes what she's doing when she raids Torchwood's- now that's a name she remembers in association with the Doctor's- storage rooms and finds a mostly functional vortex manipulator. It shines fully in the light, just enough battery to take her the few years forward into the future to where she can get the parts she needs to make it fully functional again. 

 

The coordinates are input without a second thought and then she's flying through the vortex and landing in her parents front room. 

 

"River?" Her mother asks quietly. Its soft, gentle even, like she can see how heart broken River is just by looking at her. 

 

A very, very distant part of River wonders how Amy knows who she is. But the cold is fading, replaced by the pain and River can only manage a broken, "She's gone," before completely breaking down. 

 

Amy has never been known to be particularly comforting, that's Rory's specialty, but the heartbreak on River's face is familiar enough that she can infer exactly what happened. 

 

It takes nearly an hour of sobbing and three cups of tea to finally get River calm enough to explain what happened and Amy's sure the only reason they're getting anything out of her is because Rory came home right before the crying stopped and was quick to comfort her.

 

"I was supposed to die. So long ago in a Library two thousand years in the future. But I didnt. I ended up in 2000 looking like this. And I was stupid and I fell in love."

  
  


She takes the vortex manipulator and travels alone, shaves off her hair because it gets in the way and reminds her of Rose. But everything reminds her of Rose and for the first time in nearly her entire life, she's not looking for the Doctor.

 

Each year that passes linearly for her, she goes back to the Canary Wharf monument and sits on the uncomfortable stone bench and allows herself to miss Rose more than she does on other days. 

 

April 27th 2018, she sits on the uncomfortable stone bench in front of the Canary Wharf monument, her trembling fingers gently caressing Rose's name. It's been over ten years and she's finally letting her hair grow out now. She'll probably never let it get as long as it once was, but the chin length bob she has now makes her look dramatic and on days when she misses Rose, she can put tiny braids in it like she used to. 

 

Someone sits down next to her and she looks over at them in surprise. The man sitting next to her is holding a single pink and yellow Rose. She slowly lifts her eyes to his face and is shocked by the rueful smile in familiar grey eyes. 

 

The unruly, curly grey hair, the black coat. Of course the Doctor is here. She had seen the roses past years and had wondered, but who else would it be. 

 

"Melody Williams." He says almost teasingly. "The woman that loves Rose Tyler." Ah, so he knows who she is. 

 

"Doctor." She replies. 

 

"It took me far too long to figure it out." 

 

"I'm surprised you caught on at all." Her reply is clipped, not in the mood to play their normal games. 

 

"River." He chastises and she sobs. He's always said her name that way, taking the two syllables and infusing them with such meaning that she can't help but crave it, this one is particularly good at it, "How did this happen?" He asks. 

 

"I don't know. One second I was dying in the Library and the next I woke up in a park a few blocks from-" Rose's flat is what she wants to say but the words get tangled in her throat and she just stops talking. 

 

"And you just decided to make friends with-" he stops suddenly too and River has the strange urge to laugh. What a pair they make, unable to have a proper conversation because neither of them can say the name of they woman they're in love with.

 

"I didn't know who she was. It's not like you ever told me about her." River snaps. 

 

"You know I don't talk about my old companions."

 

River snort, that's new, "'Companions' he says. As if she wasn't so much more than that. I would think that you would have at least told me you were already in love with someone when I bullied you into marrying me."

 

"Oh you're one to talk with your 'spoilers'. Tell me, how many husbands do you have?"

 

This isn't really like them. Yes, River many be a slight psychopath and the Doctor was never good with his emotions, but they've never really fought before.

 

"Excuse me." A soft famine voice says. 

 

They both whirl on the speaker. "What?"

 

"Well, I'd like to get by." The woman holds up a bouquet of bright pink lilies and a banana. 

 

They step aside and let her past, ready to return to their fight once she leaves but the woman doesn't, she stares and the monument before speaking again. "You know, life is a funny thing. Because according to this, my mother died in this battle. But I know for a fact she didn't, she lived to be 89 in fact. A whole 49 years later." She smiles up at them, her smile nearly blinding, "The thing is, this says I died that day too. But here I am."

 

"And why should this matter to us at all?" The Doctor says and River smacks him. 

 

"Don't be rude."

 

The woman chuckles, "Don't worry about it. I know the type. My husband was the same way. Rude and not ginger."

 

"What did you just say?" The Doctor demands, grabbing her shoulders. 

 

"My husband." The woman says very slowly, drawing out each word, "was rude and not ginger."

 

River finally grasps what the woman is trying to say, a distant memory of a conversation with Rose post regeneration comes to mind. 

 

"How did you meet?" The Doctor asks. Why he needs further confirmation, she'll never understand.

 

The woman grins cheekily, "He blew up my job."

 

"Rose?" He finally whispers and River cant take it anymore. She shoves him out of the way and pulls the woman- Rose- into her arms. 

 

"You magnificent impossible girl, you." She cries into Rose's hair. "I thought you were dead."

 

"Dead?" Rose questions, pulling back just enough to glare at the Doctor. "You were supposed to tell her."

 

"I couldn't find her! If I hadn't met her that day in Cardiff I would have thought you made her up."

 

"Why would I make up a girlfriend?"

 

"I don't know!" He cries. "How did you even regenerate in the first place? Assuming that's what you did to get a different face."

 

"Bad Wolf. It's why I'm more Time Lord than human now and why River was saved."

 

River finally releases her grip on Rose and the Doctor is quick to step in to give her what sounds like a bone crushing hug. 

 

"So." Rose says when he lets her go long enough to breathe, "Chips?" River and the Doctor laugh.

 

There will be time later, to find out how Rose miraculously came back, to explore the new ground of being three people in love, but for now, chips and each other are the only things they need.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And its done! Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
